Wednesday, February 9, 2011

"An artist is an artist only because of his exquisite sense of beauty, a sense which shows him intoxicating pleasures, but which at the same time implies and contains an equally exquisite sense of all deformities and all disproportion."Charles Baudelaire on Edgar Allan Poe, 1856.fromThe Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays

"Well, could you play a car crash with an electric guitar?"Patti Smith to Lenny Kaye, 1971. fromJust Kids

Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye performed together for the first time on February 10, 1971 at The Poetry Project at the St. Marks Church in New York City. It was also the first time an electric guitar had ever been played at the church, and Lenny uses it to demonstrate the auditory car crash sounds in "Ballad of a Bad Boy," one of four selections from this rarely heard performance, and would serve as the the first of many collaborations between these two. Later becoming the Patti Smith Group, they helped to forge a new alliance between rock n roll, art and poetry in New York's punk scene of the mid 1970s. The historic venues in New York where they originally played before touring the world are now all gone except for The Poetry Project which tonight will host their return in celebration of the 40th anniversary of that first performance.

10 comments:

There was plenty of electric guitar at St. Mark's Church pre-Patti. For example Mind Garage performed their "Electric Liturgy" there in 69'-- it was broadcast live on ABC.http://www.mindgarage.com/ABC.html

That 45 left with my old girl friend , but the Piss water seems to be rising. Isn't Patti more annoying than ever or am I just old and grouchy instead of young and angry? There is a great photo show of old pictures of Patti and Robert at the Feature Gallery at 131 Allen St,NY,NY by Judy Linn. Thanks for all your great work. JW